The Defiant
by ElfCollaborator
Summary: Cardin stumbles down into a dark path, and turns away. Will this be enough, for him, to redeem himself? Songfic based off 'Sentry the Defiant' by Coheed and Cambria. Rated T for violence, angst, language and themes. WARNING: Has Heroic!Cardin, do not read if you don't like him as sympathetic.


The Defiant

**A/N: MORE WEIRD ELF IDEAS. WOO. Yet another songfic. This time, the song's based off of the Coheed and Cambria song 'Sentry the Defiant', from the album The Afterman: Descension.**

**DISCLAIMER: The song belongs to Coheed and Cambria, and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, otherwise Cardin would be an actual badass.**

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><p>He stood there, staring down the one who had cast him down. Cinder smirked, a fireball growing in her hand. The boy clenched his weapon harder, giving her a glare that would have struck down an army of Beowolves.<p>

"So, boy, it came to this, did it?"

The boy stood there silently, lifting his mace into battle. Around him lay the unconscious, wounded members of RWBY; had he not interfered, they would be corpses- as it was, he barely arrived in time to save them. He said not a word; he was driven only by purpose.

"Not even a thank you? I brought you from underneath those fools, and this is how you repay me?" She gave him a knowing smile. "Very well then. Let us do battle, boy!" He did not respond. He did not need or feel the desire to.

Revenge and justice was all Cardin Winchester, recently deceased leader of team CRDL and traitor-turned-informant, sought.

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><p>It all started that fateful afternoon.<p>

The moment that Jaune Arc had saved him from an Ursa, he knew he'd never live it down. The moment his former victim had taken up his sword and saved him, he knew he would suffer the ridicule of his own team, and everyone else.

Indeed, Cardin did suffer.

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><p>"What, you gone soft, have ya?" A punch in the stomach.<p>

"Yeah, Winchester, have you gone all friendly because he got lucky?" Another one to the back.

"Tch, what a weakling!" This time, there was a boot to the face. Cardin was floored, coughing, his nose spurting blood. His teammates spat at him, laughing. He glared at them, trying to maintain his dignity, despite his inferior position.

"And what? He got lucky. I can't just-"

"Oh shut it, Winchester, we know you're going to give us some bullshit excuse. By Dust, I thought you were better than associating with a mongrel!" Russel laughed. "That Arc boy isn't even pureblood, I bet you, and you decided to let him off?"

"And what, look like an ass for-"

Sky chimed in. "I knew you had an eye on Pyrrha and that Schnee girl, but you and Arc?"

"What, I did-"

"Oh, put a cap in it, oh team leader." Cardin received a brutal kick to the stomach again, doubling over in pain. His eyes welled with tears, and the bleeding from his nose intensified.

"Bah, it's no fun with a mongrel-lover!"

"He's right. I'm hungry."

"Let's go. Let 'im cry his eyes out, like a little whiny girl." The rest of his teammates walked off, leaving Cardin alone.

It began to rain as he lay there, sobbing, letting the storm roll over him. Eventually, someone- he didn't remember who- picked him up and got him to the infirmary. Despite his protests, his teammates were cleared of suspicion- and anyway, it wasn't like anyone cared. They wanted to him to suffer.

When you bully others and treat others as inferiors, a lack of sympathy for when you are endangered seems to be common.

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><p>Shortly, he became the victim of ridicule, as much a victim as Velvet once was, but without the sympathy others gave her, and without his team for support; indeed, his team were the ones who did most of the tormenting.<p>

Jaune understood, he really did. He sat with him, trying to make him feel better- but every time he tried to reach out, Ren cut him off, or Lark, or-

It all went to hell for the former bully. All the while, he saw others rise up in popularity; JNPR and RWBY, the paragons, the stars of the academy- everyone fawned over them.

It was no surprise, then, that Cardin became envious of the attention, of their strength, of people caring about them.

And even less that Cinder Fall, criminal mastermind of Vytal and former Huntress, went after him as the weak link.

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><p>"So, boy, you want to be part of my crew, huh?" She looked at him with her golden, secretive eyes, an amused expression on her face.<p>

"Uh...yes...ma'am..." Cardin shuddered in his boots. He was painfully aware of the danger; she was one of the most accomplished Huntresses on Vytal and her Semblance of fire manipulation was known to have taken down whole teams of Hunters. He made one bad move, the boy reflected, and he would be burnt to a crisp.

Cinder laughed. "I see. Well then." She grabbed Cardin's chin, looking up and down at him, interested. "Strong looking, tough...hm...a couple of scars?"

"...w-what's it to you..." He made a feeble attempt to look strong in front of the pyromancer.

"Winchester, has nobody told you that that's not the way to treat a potential employer?" She chuckled to herself, smiling. "Ah, but I'll take you on, nonetheless. You'll make a good tool.

I need to train you, though."

"R-Really?" Cardin's eyes widened. Cinder nodded. "Meet me here, every Friday night. You'll be here, right?"

"Yeah...okay...u-um..."

"You'll be a good boy, won't you?" She called after him, cackling as he ran at full sprint to the Academy.

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><p>He was quickly subsumed into her crew of thieves and criminals. She valued the kind of young, fresh, and more importantly, malleable minds that populated Beacon, and certainly Cardin took well to it.<p>

At first, it was little things; vandalize a car or two, leave her insignia on various buildings in Vale, maybe spray a couple of tags. It got worse.

Eventually, Cardin was starting to rob cars, bust them open for an accomplice to drive off, steal things from stores, armed robbery...

And he took well to it.

It horrified him, every night as he returned, he reflected. Every night, he'd go to his dorm bathroom and wash his hands, in an attempt to remove the guilt, in an attempt to erase the damning voices that filled his head. With every day, nobody still cared; Jaune tried to reach out to him, but always, always he'd push him away.

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><p>"No, Arc!" Jaune looked surprised and backed off.<p>

"B-but...Cardin-"

"Don't 'Cardin' me, asshole, you know I don't like being treated like a kid!"

"What? I did nothin-" Cardin grabbed him by the collar.

"Listen, Arc, and listen good. I don't want your sympathy. I don't want your help. I want you to fuck off. You got it, kid?"

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><p>"...g-gotcha..." With that, Cardin threw him on the ground and walked off. The blond boy watched him, horrified.<p>

Cinder watched from the shadows, smiling.

"So it begins."

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><p>It was in the summer of their last year in Beacon. By that time, team RWBY had been sent out to screw with Cinder and Torchwick's plans one too many times, and the mastermind was getting tired of it.<p>

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><p>"...I want you to dispose of them."<p>

"W-what?" Cardin looked at her, confused.

"I said, I want you to get rid of team RWBY."

"...you want me to kill them?!"

"No, silly boy!" Cinder hissed. "You won't. My team will.

Just lead them there. Act wounded. Convince them."

"B-but..."

"If you do this, Winchester, I'll teach you how to use Dust weapons. I'll set you up as the hero of Beacon, who valiantly tried and failed to save team RWBY. You'll be loved again." She smirked, watching the boy's twisting face, grappling with the choice laid before him.

Cardin and RWBY weren't on the best of terms, but he didn't wish them to die, no. And now, he was offered power and popularity, if only he'd get them killed...

"I-I'll have to think about it..."

"Think quickly, Winchester. I want them out of the way."

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><p>He grappled with it for a while, really. He would finally get back his popularity, he'd finally be the top dog of Beacon again; hell, the entire nation would be worshipping his feet.<p>

And all it took...was a little work from him to lure people he didn't care about, people he wanted out of the way...people who'd never cared about him...

He clenched his fist and banged it into the hard, wooden table of his dorm. He was going to do it.

He was going to let team RWBY die.

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><p>Or at least, he would have, if it wasn't for Weiss Schnee, of all people.<p>

He was heading out to get his equipment for training- the excuse he'd made Oobleck- but was actually heading out to steal bandages from the infirmary, and dye from the forges.

There, he saw her.

The heiress was nodding to an injured Pyrrha, leaving her a card and some food- the spearwoman had sprained her shoulder in an accident in training- and was about to leave when...

"Oh...Cardin. I didn't know you were here."

"I-I was just...getting a check-up..." He tried to rush off, but something held him there- whether it was Weiss' tired gaze or her concern for him, he didn't remember. He didn't care, either.

"...Cardin, are you-"

"I'm fine."

"Cardin, you don't look fine."  
>"I said I was fine, Schnee!"<p>

"I know you aren't, Winchester." The tone in her voice made him turn around, wrath building up in him. What he saw was an exhausted woman, her normally piercing eyes bleary and full of tears, her normally perfect hair completely astray.

"...Weiss..."

"I-it's just...I know Pyrrha's hurt herself...I know Blake's struggling with the work as it is..." She sighed. "Cardin, I may not know you too well...but I don't want to see yet another person get hurt."

"..." He calmed down, breathing heavily, as he listened to Weiss.

"...I know you must be stressed, with exams and the final trial coming up...but please...come to me, if you want help..." The heiress brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. "I can help you."

"...t-thanks..." Cardin hugged her tightly. He hadn't felt like anyone cared about him in years, like anyone liked him...

...and for the Ice Princess to do so...it warmed his heart.

Weiss Schnee was the first person in all of Beacon to see Cardin Winchester truly let his heart out and cry.

And so his resolve was set.

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><p>"...sir...you won't say anything, right?"<p>

Ozpin studied his face curiously.

"...I won't. Thank you, Mister Winchester...Cinder Fall has been an immense threat to our operations lately...but with this information..." He sighed.

"Return to your dorm, Mister Winchester. We will talk in the morning."

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><p>Cardin feared the worst. He thought that RWBY would find out he betrayed them, or that Ozpin would kick him out.<p>

None of that, really.

No. What he got was-

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><p>"You son of a bitch!" Cardin was tossed into a wall by flames. Cinder stood there, her hair flying about with the power behind her blasts, her face twisted in anger.<p>

"You TOLD OZPIN. I had ONE simple task for you. ONE!"

"I...I wouldn't let them die..."

"YOU BASTARD!" Another blast into the boy's abdomen. He felt it sear through his skin, boil it- and yet he did not regret his decision.

"Let it be known that this is what happens to people who betray me, Winchester." She smiled, readying another blast.

"...b-bring it...I saved them...y-you know it..."

"Not at all. You just delayed my plans. I know where they're going.

Your old friend Russel told me." With a cackling laugh, she blasted him once more.

And silence.

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><p>Another smash from his mace sent Cinder flying backwards. All of her attacks had no effect on him- he didn't even react to one hitting him dead on in the face.<p>

"W-what are you?" She picked herself up, coughing up blood and wiping it out of her mouth, cursing, before deftly dodging another smash. She blasted him with fire-propelled debris, to no avail. Cardin merely studied her with an expression that could be described as righteous fury, yet tranquil.

The pyromancer wrung her hands, cursing. "You're nothing but a fucking student Hunter! What the hell happened to you?!"

He spoke several words, and her eyes widened as he spoke them.

"I became...Defiant."

The clashing of mace and fire began to slowly peter down, until the fire was smothered and put out.

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><p>The death of Cardin Winchester spread many rumours throughout the school- some said he died trying to hold off Cinder from team RWBY, others said team RWBY had killed him in the process of trying to take down the mastermind, and yet others said it was all a ruse and he was alive, somewhere.<p>

It was a sunny afternoon when Blake finally found out what force had brought back Cardin from the dead to fight. She was in the library, reading as usual, nursing a broken arm, and she finally found it.

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><p>"...the Defiant?"<p>

"An entity, told of by various cultures around Remnant, that's common throughout lore by Faunus and humans alike." Blake enunciated. "The Defiant often takes the spirits of those betrayed; those cast down by the world, and yet remain defiant and so reject the path of the evil, even in their final moments."

"Uhuh..." Weiss listened in.

"Those taken by the Defiant are resurrected, to fight forever the enemies of justice, the enemies of the underdogs, and in doing so defy the forces of evil."

"...so Cardin..."

"...is indeed now the avatar of an entity that seeks only justice, yes." Blake nodded. "This force allowed him to...save us from Cinder, that night."

"...who knew..." She nodded curiously.

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><p>Meanwhile...somewhere nearby...<p>

Cardin the Defiant watched the students of Beacon, a purpose in un-life gained, a thing to fight for given.

He would defend them in his undeath. To repent for all the suffering he had inflicted, he would protect them.

He had to be defiant; defiant of evil wherever it went, defiant of what the world thought he was.

He would protect them now.

It was only right.

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><p><em>Now be defiant, the lion<em>

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><p><strong>END<strong>

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><p><strong>AN: Eh, weird idea, not my best work. No, I don't like Cardin just as much as the next guy. Yes, I do believe he's in need of at least ONE fic that redeems him.**

**The next chapters to Weiss Reacts and Weiss und Rammstein are indeed coming, don't worry. In the meantime, enjoy, relax, review and have a great day! Until next time!**


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